Lean thinking in healthcare – review and current situation in Croatia

Abstract

Lean thinking was first introduced in production (mainly in the automotive) sector but its use has spread into the service sectors. Its benefits are well known worldwide and if implemented and used correctly, companies can improve their effectiveness and gain and/or maintain competitiveness. Recently, lean thinking has started being implemented and used in healthcare to accelerate flow in processes, reduce waste in processes and improve the quality of services for “users”. The main goal of the paper is to provide a literature review on lean thinking in healthcare worldwide. The review is showing the methods and trends in lean healthcare and some of the most successful implementations. Based on the presented worldwide examples, this paper will try to present a potential for the lean implementation in Croatian healthcare institutions and present potential benefits of the application. Based on the research results, this paper gives suggestions for further research on this interesting and important topic.

Keywords

• Lean,Healthcare institutions,Improvement,Croatia

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